https://www.sciencealert.com/images/2018-03/processed/mit-fusion-sparc_600.jpg
Source: sciencealert.com

MIT scientist are hoping to discover away to produce a clean source of energy.  They believe the way to generate clean energy is through fusion.  They have formed a partnership with a private company, Commonwealth Fusion Systems.

Today nuclear power plants are based on fission.  Fission involves the splitting of atoms and harnessing the power or actually the heat given off.  Fission basically works by shooting a neutron into the nucleus of an atom, this destabilizes the atom causing it to split into smaller atoms and in the process it releases heat.  The atom which was split also releases neutrons, these work to split other atoms.

This is why a fission reactor is prone to a meltdown.  As more atoms are split, it causes a chain reaction and it can run out of control.  They control the reaction with control rods.  These rods absorb free neutrons so they won't split other atoms.  When there are less neutrons the reaction will slow.

Fusion differs from fission in that fusion creates heat by atoms combining an forming a larger atom.  The sun creates energy by fusing hydrogen atoms into helium atoms.

Up till now, fusion experiments have not been able to produce as much energy as it took to run the reaction.  This new joint venture has designed a nuclear reactor they call the tokamak.  This reactor uses powerful magnets to create a magnetic field which confines the hot plasma produced by the fusion in a torus shape.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/18/Tcv_int.jpg/450px-Tcv_int.jpg
Source: wikipedia.org

The first step is to create a magnet that is capable of confining the plasma.  The will use a steel tape coated with a superconducting compound (YBCO) Yttrium barium copper oxide.  They estimate that these magnets should generate magnetic field about 4 times a strong.  YBCO coated tape has only recently become commercially available.

At this time, two other concerns are working to build a fusion reactor.  ITER is based in France and they are constructing a tokamak to run the world's largest magnetic plasma physics experiment.  Tokamak Energy in the UK is testing a miniature tokamak to experiment with generating energy by fusion.

Source: sciencealert.com

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